Livin Dominican: Just the Way You Are

This week has been an interesting one for me. We have had some wonderful experiences teaching this week and also some of the most difficult experiences I have had to face in my mission yet. I have debated all week about what to say in this email. Whether to share all the dirty details or not. I think I´ll stick with the positive of what happened and then someday in the future if you all want to know what went down this week in the mission you can ask me.

We are still seeing wonderful things. We had 16 less actives come to church again on Sunday, we have 4 people with baptismal dates for the next month, and the branch thanks us many times a week for the miracles that they have started to see here. We always remind them that we aren´t the reason for the success...it´s the unity and the desire that EVERYONE has that is bringing so many wonderful things to Conani.

As you all know, I am a little direct. I tend to tell people how it is. It is something that I have been trying to work on but I also realize that it is a big part of who I am and that perhaps the Lord needs some people that are just very straight to the point (I mean where would we be without Elder Holland?). This week I had a few experiences where I saw the blessings of being brutally honest. The first was with a member that is preparing to serve a mission. His mom is not a member and hates the church. She is very opposed to him serving and said that if he did not find a job soon to pay for his mission she would kick him out. Work doesn´t exist here. It is almost impossible to find a job and if you find one it usually doesn´t pay anything. He called us a few days later to say he had found a job...but he would have to work Saturday and Sunday. I told him to turn it down. He got a little frustrated and said, "I thought you would be happy for me. You don´t understand the pressure I´m under with my mom and you know that jobs are impossible to find especially here in La Vega!" I asked him who he loved more- his mom or the Lord. Then I said, "If you accept that job you will go inactive. You will find a reason to not serve and that job will be the start of a different life for you. Do not do something stupid for money. Do not sacrifice the opportunity to partake of the sacrament for a few pesos. I promise that if you show your faith right now and you turn down that job, the Lord will open up doors to you. You will find a better job that does not require that you work on Sunday. This is your chance to show your faith and show the Lord that you are willing to do whatever it takes to follow Him." This member proceeded to tell me a lot of really rude things and rail on me for talking to him that way but he eventually softened his heart because 2 days later he called again. "Hermana, I wanted to thank you for being so blunt with me about work. I had 2 other job offers and received one of the other jobs. I put my own hours and will make more money than I would have at the other job. Plus now I can keep going to church. You were right, the Lord wanted to see where my faith was and I´m grateful that you helped me see that."

We had another experience with Victor who is still struggling as he tries to quit smoking. We have shared about the love of God and all the different tools he can use (once again I am so grateful for Sunrise and all the professional training I have helping people with addictions!). This time as he started to make excuses for smoking again I cut in and told him I didn´t want to hear any more excuses. I told him that through his actions he was demonstrating that a cigarrette is more important that his relationship with his daughter and with the Lord. Veronica is always begging him to quit smoking and he can´t hold a calling because he does not live the commandments. I don´t remember what else I said to him but I was pretty straightforward about the consequences of his continuing to smoke. Then we made a plan and I challenged him to only smoke 1 a day for the next week. Then we would do 1 every other day and so on and so forth. Before he was smoking up to 40 in a day. He got really frustrated with me as well and told me I didn´t understand and that I can´t just go into other´s houses and tell them how to live. We explained that we care about them and that is why we challenge them to be better than they are. We called the next day to see how he was doing with the goal. He thanked me for being honest and helping wake him up to reality. By the end of the week he had gone 3 days without smoking at all.

The last experience came with a family we are working with. The wife is a less active member and her husband and granddaughter are investigating the church. Her granddaughter, Ariadna, is 9 and really wants to be baptized. Yesterday we went to extend a date for the 27 of September with the two of them. Ariadna accepted right away but Rafael was really hesitant. He said that you need to be sure about what you are doing before you get baptized in a church and that you can´t just play with the things of God. We assured him that we would be there to help him prepare and that if the date came and he didn´t feel completely ready that we would change the date. That didn´t work. For everything we said, he had an excuse not to do it. I asked him if he had faith. He said that he did but that things take time and he wanted to change first. So I asked, "Do you believe that Christ can change someone in a month?" He told me, "Of course." Then I asked him, "How long did most of the miracles Christ did take to fulfill? When He healed people did they have to wait years to see the effects?" He told me that they happened in the very instant. Then I asked, "Do you believe that Christ can do a miracle in your life?" I testified that as we choose to let Christ into our lives He can work miracles and completely change us if we allow Him to do so. I challenged him to use his faith and by the end he agreed that Christ could help prepare him during the next month to be ready to make this convenant with God. He accepted the date.

I don´t share all of these stories to say that you should go out and just tell people how it is. We should always act with love and according to what the spirit tells us. But I learned an important lesson this week and it is that sometimes the things that we look at as weaknesses can be used as strengths in the service of the Lord. I received a priesthood blessing during the week and that was one of the things He told me. That I should never be ashamed of who I am because the Lord uses the different skills of everyone to do the work and we just need to be sensitive to what He wants us to do. I know that when we put our faith in Him that miracles are possible. He loves us infinitely and has a special plan for each of us. He talks to us through prayer and blessings and will help guide us in all that we do.

Love you all, the Lord loves you, and the church is true!

Sister Ewell